Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan
by Evil Overlord in
book reflections
during the graveyard shift on
February 13th, 2006:
2 years, 6 months ago
Spoilers.
WH ends on a positive note, leaving fans hoping that RJ has hit his stride again.
The unfortunate truth is that RJ has not found his stride again and seems to be tripping off-pace in the travesty that is CoT. As a fan of the series, I almost hate to say this, but in all honesty – the book is bad. While I didn’t enjoy 6-8 and certainly don’t consider them good, I don’t think that I could actually classify them as bad. Not so with CoT.
Here’s what happens in the book: nothing. No really. Nothing. The entire thing is composed of long, flowery prose (I believe I saw a single sentence that stretched 2/3 of a page) that goes nowhere. I don’t have a problem with such prose so long as there seems to be a point to it. It is especially aggravating in light of the culmination of WH, but then CoT overlaps some of the same time period.
Perhaps Jordan was going for a “set-up” novel in which everything will be brought to a smashing conclusion in the book 11. That’s about the kindest thing I can think of to say… and it’s not much.
Rand talks Cadsuane. Elayne wishes that she controlled Caemelyn. Mat manages to move a few miles. Faile tries to figure out how to escape while Perrin tries to figure out how to rescue her. Egwene actually does something interesting… but not till the last chapter! The book also suffers from a decided minor character fascination, presenting chapters from rather random minor characters, of whom there are so many that it’s a bit hard to keep track of.
Here’s to the next book. Holding to faith and all that.
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